http://www.thefloridaridge.com/pages/RidgeTeamChallenge2012.php

http://lostgriz.blogspot.com/

The task for the fourth day:

The wind was forecasted to build to thirteen mph out of the northwest later in
the day as a front headed south. It is hard to create a task heading southeast
from the Florida Ridge as soon it turns into a vast acreage of sugar cane with
only private roads.

We also want to keep the pilots near roads and not drop them off in the swamps,
but this requires a cross wind leg on a difficult day with gliders that are not
all topless. It's a trade off between a difficult retrieve or long walk out, and
a day made shorter by the difficulty of heading south in a west northwest wind.
Numerous pilots go down early

Luckily for me, after Steve Pearson and I along with a robust volunteer crew
help almost all the pilots launch, I get a chance to fly a demo Falcon 3 170
with pneumatic wheels. I don't have to hit the turnpoints and I am familiar
enough with the territory that I'm willing to take calculated chances that will
actually get me to the better lift, but risk landing out. Here's a portion of my
track log:

Some sink along the way, actually in fpm:

The launch does not start off well:

Photo by Steve Pearson

But I recover and climb out at 700 fpm. Cloud base is 5,500'.

Despite our best efforts some pilots head into areas without easy retrieval and
have to swim across canals and hike out long distances to get back to a public
dirt road. This is a training competition, but we try to keep the difficulty of
the lessons to a minimum.

Derrick and Pedro make it back against the head wind. Austin and I land at the
goal (Austin blows off the second turnpoint after the pilot he was helping
drifts away from the course line and he looses him) and pack up and have Steve
Pearson retrieve us before three more pilots land there after being unable to
fly back upwind. I land on wheels in eight inch high grass that softly stops me
without the wheels rolling at all.

The Russian-speaking Air Hogs won the day and continue to be in the lead.